5 writers make the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist

CBC

10-04-2025

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Writers Vincent Anioke, Trent Lewin, Dorian McNamara, Emi Sasagawa and Zeina Sleiman have made the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize shortlist.
Their nominated works are:
Love is the Enemy by Vincent Anioke (Waterloo, Ont.)
Ghostworlds by Trent Lewin (Waterloo, Ont.)
You (Streetcar at Night) by Dorian McNamara (Halifax)
Lessons from a peach by Emi Sasagawa (Vancouver)
My Father's Soil by Zeina Sleiman (Edmonton)
The winner will be announced on April 17. They will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The remaining four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts.
All five finalists had their work published on CBC Books. You can read their stories by clicking on the links above.
The longlist was selected from more than 2,300 submissions. Submissions are processed by a two-tiered system: the initial submissions are screened by a reading committee chosen for each category from a group of qualified editors and writers across the country. Each entry is read by two readers.
The readers come up with a preliminary list of approximately 100 submissions that are then forwarded to a second reading committee. It is this committee who will decide upon the 30ish entries that comprise the long list that is forwarded to the jury.
This year's finalists were selected by a jury composed of Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie. They will also select the winner.
Works are judged anonymously on the basis of the participant's use of language, originality of subject and writing style. For more on how the judging for the CBC Literary Prizes works, visit the FAQ page.
The shortlist for the French-language competition has also been revealed. To read more, go to the Prix de la création Radio-Canada.
If you're interested in other writing competitions, check out the CBC Literary Prizes. The 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. The 2026 CBC Short Story Prize will open in September and the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize will open in January.
Get to know the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize English-language finalists below.
Love is the Enemy by Vincent Anioke
Vincent Anioke is a Nigerian Canadian writer and software engineer. His short stories have appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, The Rumpus, The Masters Review and Passages North. He won the 2021 Austin Clarke Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the 2023 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Perfect Little Angels, his debut short story collection, was released in 2024 and shortlisted for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize. CBC Books named Anioke as one of the 2024 writers to watch. He is currently working on a novel.
Anioke is no stranger to CBC Literary Prize success. His story Leave A Funny Message At The Beep was longlisted for the 2024 CBC Short Story Prize and his story Utopia was longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize twice, in 2021 and 2023.
Why he wrote Love is the Enemy:"I was reflecting on the dual nature of love after an intense personal experience — how love can exert a pressure that runs counter to our beloved's soul, or body, or agency, or desires, arguably for better or worse. I saw the tendrils of that duality tangled up in all kinds of love that define our lives: parental, patriotic, romantic, religious — and became interested in a tightly woven story that explored and hyper-focused on these threads.
I was especially proud of this story, how it feels deeply Nigerian with its focus on roots and culture and tradition, deeply Canadian with its focus on migration and assimilation and redefinition, and deeply universal with its themes on love, loss, and belonging.
"The CBC Short Story Prize has been on my radar since 2021, and I was especially proud of this story, how it feels deeply Nigerian with its focus on roots and culture and tradition, deeply Canadian with its focus on migration and assimilation and redefinition, and deeply universal with its themes on love, loss, and belonging."
Ghostworlds by Trent Lewin
Trent Lewin is a writer of East Indian origin, an immigrant to Canada and a climate advocate, that has been published by Boulevard, december, Grain, FreeFall and Ex-Puritan. He has also been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Lewin is hard at work on two novels and numerous short stories, all of which seek to blend the literary across a variety of genres. He has a background in education and engineering/science and lives in Waterloo, Ont.
In 2014, Lewin was a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize for his story Saad Steps Out. More recently, he made the CBC Short Story Prize longlist in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Why he wrote Ghostworlds:"There is a theory that we don't encounter life from other planets because the beings there have created false realities in which they find a better existence than their real ones. Virtual worlds that are expansive and joyous and that draw them in, so that they don't have to deal with reality and thus never push outwards. I often wonder if we are heading on that track too, caught up in digital worlds rather than real ones, always looking for alternate realities to the one in which we live. I find that a bit disheartening but also a source of hope if we can harness that power in a positive way. I feel like we cling to those virtual worlds over Ontario winters, when we seldom see our own neighbours!
It's one of those stories that I know I wanted to tell but went through many iterations to get to a point where it resonated with me. - Trent Lewin
"This story pulled at me early on, but I rewrote it several times to find a way to bring a fairly complex message to life. It's one of those stories that I know I wanted to tell but went through many iterations to get to a point where it resonated with me. I remember having a fun moment in a coffee shop where I felt that it had finally landed, and knew right away that I wanted to share it. Having been shortlisted and longlisted by the CBC before, it just felt like the type of story that would resonate."
Dorian McNamara is a queer transgender writer currently living in Halifax. Originally from Toronto, he graduated with a BA in psychology from Dalhousie University. He is currently working on his first novel as well as publishing the creative newsletter Dear You.
Why he wrote You (Streetcar at Night):"Growing up in Toronto, I've always loved the streetcars. When I come home to visit my family, I find I am often on the streetcar. There's always a lot of memories tied to them, but after coming out, I got anxious that people who knew me before would recognize me then. Part of me wanted them to remember me and see me now, but another part of me was afraid of how people I used to know would react.
Part of me wanted them to remember me and see me now, but another part of me was afraid of how people I used to know would react. - Dorian McNamara
"I took an introduction to creative writing class in university and the professor recommended all of us submit to the CBC Short Story Prize. I ended up submitting a short story for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize and decided I wanted to submit another one this year."
Emi Sasagawa is a settler, immigrant and queer woman of colour, living and writing on the traditional, ancestral and stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Selilwitulh Nations. Sasagawa's debut novel Atomweight was selected by CBC Books as one of the works of Canadian fiction to read in the first half of 2023 and dubbed by The Tyee as "a propulsive exploration of growth and becoming." The novel is an invitation for readers to reflect on their intersectional identity, through privilege and power, and oppression and marginalization and reimagine how we may take up space and hold space for others.
Sasagawa was also a finalist for the 2024 CBC Nonfiction Prize for her essay Dad's the Word.
Why she wrote Lessons from a peach:"I was six years old when my grandfather died of cancer. I remember struggling to make sense of it — all my assumptions about safety and permanence painfully contradicted by his glaring absence. As a biracial person, I've had to navigate pain and loss through (sometimes seemingly competing) traditions. I wanted to write a story that reflected that tension, told from the perspective of a young girl, whose notions of who she is and how she grieves are still being formed.
As a biracial person, I've had to navigate pain and loss through (sometimes seemingly competing) traditions. I wanted to write a story that reflected that tension.
"After being shortlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize last year, I felt emboldened to submit a short story. Despite having published a novel, I still consider myself a nonfiction writer, so I needed the extra encouragement to submit this piece."
My Father's Soil by Zeina Sleiman
Zeina Sleiman is a Palestinian Canadian writer. She was born in Abu Dhabi and grew up between Montreal, Ottawa and Lebanon. She has a PhD in politics and works in the post-secondary sector. She is a former mentee in Canada's Writers' Union BIPOC connect program and is a recipient of grants and awards from the Silk Road institute, Canada Council for the Arts and the Edmonton Arts Foundation. Her debut novel, Where the Jasmine Blooms is out April 22, 2025.
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Why she wrote My Father's Soil:"The story was inspired by conversations I've had with various family members over the last two years, but mostly my dad. I've noticed that, as a member of the younger generation of the Palestinian diaspora, we cope and understand the situation back home differently and this story was written to highlight that a bit and to make sense of it all.
I've noticed that, as a member of the younger generation of the Palestinian diaspora, we cope and understand the situation back home differently and this story was written to highlight that a bit and to make sense of it all. - Zeina Sleiman
"It was a close friend of mine who encouraged me to write a story based on the conversations I had shared with her. And when I finally did, I sent it to her and another close person to me and they both shed tears at the end. That's when I felt like there was something in this story and decided to submit it to the CBC Short Story Prize."